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Topic: Remix OS for PC Beta Launch (Read 5283 times)

Remix OS for PC is a custom flavor of Android designed for a traditional desktop/laptop experience. It has the equivalent of the start menu, task bar, tray, and notification/action center. It also allows app windowing and running multiple apps simultaneously.

That said, I think it did make a "hidden" partition that Windows couldn't erase/see/format, so I had use something like GPartEd on Linux to get the thumb drive back to normal once I decided to try out installing RemixOS to the main drive instead.

I’ve been playing with Remix OS for a few days, first on their Remix Mini device and now in a VMware virtual machine on a Windows computer. While it has some rough edges, it really is quite impressive for beta software. Here are some first impressions:

The Mini is an Android device without a screen, with 2 USB ports, Ethernet, WiFI, Bluetooth, HDMI out, and a micro-SD card slot. You need a TV or monitor and a keyboard and mouse to use it. Bluetooth is the way to go for input devices, but you’ll need to start with USB at first in order to pair your Bluetooth devices. Video performance is superb, but the ARM processor isn’t powerful enough to make you think any apps are running on a real PC. What it does is turn any TV with an HDMI input into a full Android device much smarter than any so-called Smart TV you can buy in a store.

The Mini costs $70 on Amazon or $90 direct, but as of now, if you download the Remix OS for PC from Jide.com, you will get an offer to subscribe to their newsletter and receive $40 off on the Mini. At $50 I think it's a good deal.

Running Remix OS in a VM is a very different experience. Even though apps run faster on a fast PC, video performance is not as good. So far, I’ve only been able to get 1024x786 resolution in a VM.

In both environments, I’ve been able to download apps from my Play Store account and run them without problem. Some apps allow windowing, others only run full screen, but in any case the windowing and multitasking capabilities are rather limited compared to a desktop OS. While I can’t see using Remix OS as a productivity environment, it actually does provide the ability to run Android apps in a VM on a Windows desktop, even if that ability is still somewhat limited.